At the start of a new year, I thought it would be interesting to take a fresh look at the state of the Internet around the world. The following statistics come from the DataReportal Digital 2026 Global Overview Report.

Population. There are 8.25 billion people on the planet, up 69 million over the last year, an increase of 0.8%. 58.4% of people now live in an urban center. The overall literacy rate in the world is 87.4%.

Internet. The number of people using the Internet has grown to 6.04 billion, or 73.2% of the people on Earth. That number grew by 294 million in the last year, a growth rate of 5.1%. This means that 2.2 billion people still don’t have access to the Internet.

86.5% of urban residents around the world have access to the Internet, while only 54.5% of rural residents have access.

The countries with the lowest levels of Internet adoption are North Korea (<1%), Burundi (11.1%), Central African Republic (12.0%), South Sudan (13.2%), and Chad (13.2%).

The highest rate of Internet adoption is in northern Europe (97.7%), followed by western Europe (95.1%). The lowest adoption is in eastern Africa (26.0%) and central Africa (33.5%). North America is at 93.3%. 75.7% of men around the world have access to the Internet compared to 70.7% of women.

Worldwide median download broadband speeds have grown from 82.8 Mbps in August 2023 to 104.4 Mbps in August 2025.

The fastest median download speeds in the world are in Singapore (394.3 Mbps), Chile (347.4 Mbps), Hong Kong (332.7 Mbps), the United Arab Emirates (327.6 Mbps), and France (308.0 Mbps). The slowest median download speeds are in Syria (3.4 Mbps), Cuba (3.5 Mbps), Afghanistan (4.5 Mbps), Ethiopia (9.4 Mbps), and Libya (11.0 Mbps).

The average weekly time spent using broadband online per Internet user worldwide was 33 hours, 27 minutes.

Cell Coverage. There are 5.78 billion unique cellular users in the world, meaning that 70.1% of people have a cellphone. That number increased by 108 million during the last year, an annual growth rate of 1.9%. Ericsson says that 86.9% of phones in use are smartphones.

Worldwide median download cellular speeds have more than doubled in the last two years, from 43.2 Mbps in August 2023 to 90.7 Mbps in August 2025.

The fastest median download speeds in the world are in the United Arab Emirates (614.4 Mbps), Qatar (511.4 Mbps), Kuwait (414.6 Mbps), Brazil (289.4 Mbps), and South Korea (224.5 Mbps). The slowest median download cellular speeds are in Bolivia (14.7 Mbps), Belarus (18.6 Mbps), Eswatini (19.7 Mbps), Pakistan (24.3 Mbps), and Syria (24.7 Mbps).

Social Media. There are 5.66 billion users of social media, an increase of 259 million users and a growth rate of 4.8%.

The worldwide average time spent using social media is 18 hours 36 minutes per week.

The ten most widely used social media apps, in order, are YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Messenger, SnapChat, Telegram, Pinterest, and Threads.

Devices. The devices used to access the Internet (as a percentage of total world users) are smartphones (93.7%), laptops or desktops (59.6%), connected televisions (31.6%), and tablets (28.0%).

The percentage of worldwide broadband traffic, by device used: cellphones (59.1%), laptops or computers (39.3%), tablets (1.6%), other devices (0.03%)

33% of adults now own some form of smart wrist device.

DataReportal recently released its Digital 2025: Global Overview Report that looks at the state of the Internet worldwide.

The world population at the end of 2024 was 8.20 billion, up 70 million from a year earlier, a growth rate of 0.9%.

There were 5.78 billion unique mobile subscribers in January, up 112 million (2.0%) over a year earlier.

5.56 billion people are using the Internet at the start of 2025, up 136 million (2.5%) from a year earlier. This means more than two-thirds of the people on the planet are connecting to the web.

The average landline broadband speeds worldwide were 95.1 Mbps down and 51.5 Mbps up. The average worldwide cellular data speeds were 61.5 Mbps down and 11.6 Mbps up.

5.24 billion people used social media, up 200 million (4%) from a year earlier.

The most popular social media sites in the world are:

• YouTube 2.53 billion
• Facebook 2.28 billion
• Instagram 1.74 billion
• TikTok 1.59 billion
• LinkedIn 1.20 billion
• Facebook Messenger 947 million
• Snapchat 709 million
• Reddit 605 million
• X 586 million
• Pinterest 340 million

The most popular uses of the Internet (percentage of people who use each function)

• 1 – Chat and Messaging 94.5%
• 2 – Social Media 94.4%
• 3 – Search 82.3 %
• 4 – Shopping 74.9 %
• 5 – Email 75.0%
• 6 – Location services / Maps 55.3%
• 7 – Music 47.7%
• 8 – Entertainment 46.0%
• 9 – Weather 43.6%
• 10 – News 41.4%

The average time per person using the Internet was 6 hours 38 minutes, down 2 minutes from a year earlier. This means the world spends a combined 870 trillion minutes using the Internet in 2024. The average time spend watching video (Online and TV) is 3 hours 13 minutes.

Online ads now represent 70% of all advertising dollars. Worldwide, $1.1 trillion was spent on online ads in 2023, up $75 billion over the previous year. $790.3 billion of that spending was done on digital search sites and social media.

Ecommerce is huge worldwide. 54 billion people purchased something online in 2024. Total online spending for goods was $4.12 trillion.

It’s been a while since I took a look at the worldwide Internet. The statistics cited below come from Datareportal.

The world population in January 2024 was 8.08 billion, up 74 million from a year earlier, a growth rate of 0.9%.

There were 5.61 billion unique mobile subscribers in January, up 138 million (2.5%) over a year earlier.

5.35 billion people used the Internet at the end of 2023, up 97 million (1.8%) from a year earlier. This means almost two-thirds of people on the planet are connecting to the web. Some interesting statistics about worldwide Internet connectivity:

• 63.5% of females are connecting to the Internet, and 68.8% of males.
• 61.8% of worldwide Internet access comes from laptops and desktops
• 78.8% of urban residents worldwide use the Internet versus 48.9% of rural people.

The least connected nations: North Korea at 99.9%. Between 80% and 90% – Central Africa Republic, Burundi, South Sudan, Niger, Yemen, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Madagascar

The countries that still have the most unconnected populations:

• India 684 million
• China 336 million
• Pakistan 132 million
• Nigeria 103 million
• Bangladesh 96 million
• Indonesia 76 million
• Tanzania 47 million
• Uganda 36 million

The average time spent online worldwide is 6 hours 40 minutes per day, up 3 minutes from 2023. That means the world spends a combined 780 trillion minutes using the Internet in a year.

The countries with the most average daily usage:

• 9+ hours – South Africa, Brazil
• 8 to 9 hours – Philippines, Columbia, Argentina, Chile, Russia, Malaysia, U.A.E.
• U.S. is at 7 hours 3 minutes. 20^th in the world.

Younger people worldwide spend more time online. The age group 16-24 spends 7 hours 15 minutes online daily, while those 55-64 spend 5 hours 15 minutes.

5.04 billion people use social media, up 266 million (5.6%) from a year earlier. There are 8.4 new social media users connected per second.

People are also spending more time on social media. The average TikTok viewer spends 34 hours per month on the site. Other sites with the most usage include YouTube (28 hours), Facebook (19.8 hours), Whatsapp Messenger (17 hours), Instagram (15.8 hours), Line (8.2 hours), X (4.6 hours), Telegram (3.8 hours), Snapchat (3.5 hours), FB Messenger (3.3 hours), Pinterest (1.7 hours), and LinkedIn (0.9 hours).

Countries with the biggest percentage of social media users.

• Over 90% – U.A.E, Saudi Arabia, South Korea
• 85% – 90% – Hong Kong, Singapore, Netherlands
• 80% – 85% – Spain, Malaysia, U.K., Canada, Norway, Austria, Germany, Sweden
• U.S. is at 70.1% – 36^th place.

The most popular uses of the Internet (percentage that use each function)

• 1 – Chat and Messaging 94.7%
• 2 – Social Media 94.3%
• 3 – Search 80.7 %
• 4 – Shopping 74.3 %
• 5 – Location services / Maps 54.4%
• 6 – Email 49.5%
• 7 – Music 48.1%
• 8 – Weather 42.2%
• 9 – Entertainment 40.6%
• 10 – News 40.3%

Average time worldwide spent with various Internet/Media per day:

• Using the Internet 6 hours 40 minutes
• Watching Video (Online and TV) 3 hours 6 minutes
• Using Social Media 2 hours 23 minutes
• Reading Press 1 hour 41 minutes
• Streaming Music 1 hour 25 minutes
• Using a Game Console 1 hour 2 minutes
• Listening to Broadcast Radio 50 minutes
• Listening to Podcasts 49 minutes

Online ads now represent 70% of all advertising dollars. Worldwide, $1.03 trillion was spent for online ads in 2023, up $70 billion over the previous year. $719.2 billion of that spending was done on digital search sites and social media.